Composite lay-up machines are well known in the art. Such machines can be divided into two basic types, fiber placement machines that lay bundles of individual fibers onto a surface, and tape laying machines that apply fiber composite material in the form of a wide tape onto a surface. If the surface that receives the fiber composite material is fairly continuous, and does not have a lot of contour, a tape laying machine is normally used. If the surface is highly contoured or discontinuous because of the presence of openings in the surface, a fiber placement machine is normally used.